Insanity Loves Company
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: Everyone knows that whether you're guilty or innocent, Deadman Wonderland is simply survival of the fittest - both in body and mind. Not everyone can handle living in the pit of hell, but insanity loves company just as much as misery does... Rokuro/OC


"Izaku?"

"Hey, Izaku!"

"Come on, this isn't funny…"

"Can you hear me?"

"Dammit, wake up already!"

_Shit… What am I gonna do? What if his roommate comes back? Should I just make a run for it whilst I can? Or maybe I should try and hide him first…_

_Fuck, he's heavy… And where the hell am I gonna put him? If I start digging up a hole in his back yard then someone's gonna find him. I need to get him away from here. I need transport._

_Rei… Yeah, Rei. She's the only one I can ask to help me. That's what friends are for, right? Helping you hide the bodies?_

_Damn, where did I put my phone?_

"…Rei? It's me. I'm kinda in some serious shit right now. I need a huge favour."

"…Yeah. I'm at Izaku's place."

"…I'd rather not say on the phone. Yeah, I'll explain when you get here. Okay?"

"…Okay. Just hurry."

_Where the hell is she? I told her to hurry!_

_Crap, is that a car outside? It had better be her… If it's Hitoshi then I'm fucked! Better be ready to climb through the window out back just in case._

_Oh thank god, it is only Rei… It's about time!_

"**Tala, what the hell's going on?! Why were you whispering on the phone and why have you dragged me out here in the middle of the night?"**

"Erm, maybe it's best if I show you…"

_She probably wouldn't believe me otherwise. And like it or not, she's going to have to see anyway if I want her to help me._

"**Tala, what the actual fuck… Is he… Is he **_**dead**_**?!"**

"It's not like I did it on purpose! We just got a bit… carried away…"

"**Are you fucking serious?! How can you be so calm about this?!"**

"You think I'm calm right now?! Rei, I'm gonna get arrested if I don't get rid of him somehow!"

"**Is that why you got me to come here? You want me to help you get rid of your dead boyfriend?! You're fucking psychotic – I told you not to mess around with shit like this!"**

"I told you we just got carried away! Rei, please, you've gotta help me. I'll get done for manslaughter otherwise!"

"**Shit… Fine, here's my keys. Go unlock the van and make some space in the back. You'll have to chuck all the stuff in the front."**

"Thanks, Rei. You're an absolute star."

"**Yeah, yeah. Just go."**

_Man, Rei has a lot of crap in this van… This is gonna take me fucking forever to move! What is she even doing in there? I need her to help me if I want to hurry this up…_

"**Yes, I'm at 236-1 Konan Shinagawa. Someone's been killed – you've gotta send help…"**

_Is she actually on the phone to the mother-fucking __**police**__?!_

"Rei, what the fuck are you doing?!"

"**Shit… I'm sorry Tala, but I can't do this. If I help you I'm gonna get arrested too!"**

"You _bitch_! Not if they hadn't caught us! You sold me out to save your own ass?"

"**Come on, you know I wanna get into medical school! I can't be caught involved with something like this!"**

"So you're throwing me to the police? You fucking sorry excuse for a friend!"

_Shit, shit, shit… I'm done for! She's given them the address – they'll be coming for me any minute! Damn… I'm gonna have to run. That's the only thing for it._

"**Where the hell are you going?!"**

"Where do you think, asshole? I'm getting the fuck out of here! And I hope you never get into medical school!"

_Which is gonna be the fastest way? Through the back and over the fence, right? _

_Fuck, that hurt! Why are these fences so goddamn high? This is just gonna slow me down more... Where am I even going? Whatever. It doesn't matter right now. I just need to run – get away from people. Then I can figure out what to do next. Right now I've just gotta keep running…_

_Shit, are those police sirens? Oh man, how did they catch up with me so fast? If I run they're gonna see me. I've just gotta hide and hope they carry on…_

"**Hey, you! Stop right there!"**

_**Fuck**__. They've seen me!_

"**Hey, I got her!"**

"Let go of me!"

_Oh crap, there's too many of them… I'm done for. I'll never get away…_

"**Tala Yoshino, you are under arrest for the murder of Yuki Izakunawa."**

_Shit… Damn Rei. Damn all of it._

_Just fuck this._

XXX

Tala rolled over onto her back, grumbling something incomprehensible. Awake again already. And it had been another one of _those_ dreams…

What had happened to her imagination? Couldn't her brain give her something a little more creative to experience whilst she was asleep? Or at least something that hadn't already happened... How was that supposed to be even vaguely interesting?

She rolled over onto her other side and her stomach lurched as she felt like she was going to fall. She opened her eyes to find herself staring at stone floor. She could hear the tap of a keyboard. That was right – she wasn't in her bed like she'd thought. She was on a cold, hard bench. No wonder she'd nearly fallen off it.

She sat up and groaned as she stretched out her arms. She was so stiff… That was one reason she didn't like sleeping – if she didn't move for more than an hour then she cramped up like hell. She looked up at the clock on the wall and sighed loudly. She'd barely even gotten two hours worth.

"Pipe down, will ya? All your noise is distracting me."

Tala rolled her eyes at the guy sat at the laptop on the bar. "Sorry, your _highness_," she said dryly.

Bundo Rokuro was her highly apathetic partner… Of sorts. Boyfriend was too much of a stretch. Lover sounded too intimate. Companion was just downright laughable.

Partner in crime was more like it. Birds of a feather and all that shit.

Tala looked around. The bar was now empty besides the two of them. Well it _was_ some crazy hour in the morning. "How long ago did everyone else leave?"

"A couple of hours."

Rokuro didn't even look up from his laptop, but then that was pretty typical of him. Tala had just learnt to get used to it. When you had to serve such a long sentence behind bars you couldn't really afford to be picky over the relationships you made. You had to just make do.

But in all honesty, Tala didn't really feel like she _had_ been forced to settle. She'd actually found someone in this asylum that she could almost relate to… Even if she had nearly killed him the first time they'd met. But then that was just how things generally worked in the Deadman's Wonderland.

Tala got up, swaying a little as she walked. That was another reason she didn't like sleeping – she always felt worse afterwards than she did before. Like she was hungover, only without the luxury of having drunk beforehand. She crept in behind the bar and pulled up a stool opposite Rokuro, putting her face in her hands and resting her elbows on the bar top.

Rokuro reluctantly looked up from his laptop and watched her through empty black eyes. "What?"

"What?" Tala imitated with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I'm bored."

"Then go find something to do," Rokuro replied uninterestedly, his gaze returning to the laptop screen.

"That's why I'm here." Tala tilted her face into one hand and used the other to absent-mindedly run her thumbnail against her index finger. She always kept that one particular nail sharpened into a deadly point. There were a lot of times in this place when you just needed a quick way to bleed.

Rokuro carried on typing. "Can't you see I'm busy?" he said drolly. "You'll be waiting there a long time."

In response to that Tala ripped her nail across her forefinger, tearing the skin and drawing a bead of blood. A red vine of blood suddenly grew and spiralled out of the end of her finger. She thrust it forwards in one fast movement and it whipped around Rokuro's neck, tightening and dragging him abruptly forwards, half pulling him off his stool.

"What was that?" Tala asked sweetly, leaning in closer to his face. "Don't you know it's not very nice to ignore a girl's advances?"

She may have gotten used to Rokuro being more interested in his laptop than anything else, but she still meant what she said. She didn't like being ignored when she was trying to make a move.

The blood whip wasn't quite tight enough to cut off Rokuro's breathing entirely, but it was definitely enough to make it difficult. He didn't seem particularly worried though – he'd seen this side of Tala enough times before.

"And you should know that this isn't really the best way to get most guys in the mood," replied Rokuro, his breath catching but his tone still as flat as ever.

"Well last I knew, _you_ seemed to quite like it," said Tala teasingly, tightening the ligature around Rokuro's neck. "Don't tell me your tastes have changed…"

Rokuro's eyes widened slightly at the added pressure and his breath hitched in his throat. His hands gripped the bar top a little harder, but he still didn't quite lose his cool. Tala simply laughed and dropped her hand. The tentacle of blood dissipated into the air – Rokuro gasped as he was freed from its grip, rubbing his throat.

"A little warning would have been nice," he said, voice still monotonous. His hand slid across to the side of his neck as he cracked it one way and then back again, following the movement with a roll of his shoulders.

"Then pay more attention next time I'm trying to seduce you," said Tala lightly, like the solution was obvious. She tried peeking over the top of his laptop. "So what exactly are you working on this time?"

Rokuro lowered the lid of the laptop enough so that she wouldn't be able to see from where she was sitting. "Do you really think I'm going to tell you that?"

Rokuro was the main source of intel for a group of freedom-fighting Deadmen called Scar Chain. The bar was their usual hangout. Tala had never joined up with the group herself – she didn't really have any interest in trying to escape – she just tended to follow Rokuro around instead, for lack of something better to do with her time.

It was obvious that Rokuro wasn't a _real_ part of Scar Chain anyway. Well… It was obvious to her at least. But then she could spot a crazy streak from a mile off.

No, Rokuro was working on something much bigger than Scar Chain – and probably against them whilst he was at it. He never let anything slip to Tala about what he was working on though, even after she'd made it clear that she knew he wasn't who he was pretending to be amongst the rest of the group.

Tala didn't really care. She wasn't exactly asking out of interest – more just to try and win Rokuro's attention back from the screen in front of him. So far, no such luck.

She shrugged. "It was worth a try."

She reclined back on her stool as much as gravity would allow her, sucking languidly on the end of the finger that was still bleeding slightly, letting the bitter taste of salt and copper roll over her tongue. She gazed in Rokuro's direction, but he still wasn't looking.

Tala sighed and reluctantly sat forward again in her seat. It looked like she wasn't going to win this time. Short of strangling the life out of him, she wasn't going to be getting Rokuro's full attention any time soon. Damn… She really didn't like not getting her own way.

"Weren't you supposed to be fighting Albatross later today?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Tala interestedly. Rokuro wasn't usually the one to start up conversation.

"It's been cancelled," said Rokuro, his eyes still on the screen. "Apparently last night the dude had a heart attack or some shit like that. They're rescheduling you against someone else tomorrow."

"What? That's bullshit!" Tala protested. "It's not my fault he had a heart attack – they should still make him fight!"

"You think they care what you want?" Rokuro pointed out. "In case you didn't notice, this place never lets you have a say in things."

Tala rocked back and forth on the stool, feeling irritated. "Man, and I was looking forward to that…"

"Well wait till tomorrow and maybe you'll get to fight someone even better."

"I guess…" said Tala thoughtfully. "I wonder if they'll ever put me up against you again."

Rokuro gave her a blank look. "You already know they don't put me up for many fights."

"True," agreed Tala, still rocking the stool. "So how has nobody else ever noticed that anyway? It seems pretty obvious to me that you're in the big boss's front pocket." That much she'd figured out for sure – even if Rokuro had never actually confirmed it.

Rokuro shrugged. "So much goes on in this place that the little things tend to go unnoticed. Nobody gave a crap about my last fight either."

Tala grinned. She, however, regarded the memory quite fondly. The Cuckoo versus the Magpie… How could nobody else have cared about that? It had certainly been entertaining for her at least. But then she loved being a part of a good fight… And Rokuro had been one of her most favourite opponents yet.

Damn. As if she didn't have a fight to look forward to now until tomorrow… She sighed again. "Well what am I supposed to do today then now?"

"You could always go and find something elsewhere and stop hassling me," Rokuro suggested, typing away on the keyboard again. "I can't concentrate when you're constantly badgering me."

"Aww, but that's all part of the fun!" said Tala teasingly. "Surely you don't want me to go un-entertained?"

"If you leave me alone now I'll play with you later," said Rokuro dryly.

That was an admission if Tala had ever heard one – and exactly what she'd been waiting for. It was good enough. She got down from the stool and vaulted over the top of the bar. She obediently headed towards the door, lightly brushing the back of Rokuro's neck with her fingers as she walked past.

"I'm gonna hold you to that," she said sweetly. "If you don't keep your word then I'll be _very_ upset."

"Just go," was Rokuro's bored response.

Tala did as he said and carried on walking, but she grinned to herself. She always _did_ manage to find a way to get what she wanted in the end…


End file.
